Oh and now Nunes has admitted he didn’t even read the underlying intel.

Wow, that is so surprising. I am very shocked and surprised. I did not see that coming at all.

You can't actually really blame him for that. The deal is that one Republican and one Democrat on the committee get to actually see all the underlying intel. (Also one staffer for each of them, and same on the Senate side---this is what they call the "Gang of Eight"). For whatever reason, the Republican they've authorized for that is Gowdry, not Nunez. So he's actually not allowed to see the intel.

*Gowdy

If he hasn't seen the actual intelligence, then why is he writing a memo and calling it a big deal? Yes, that's rhetorical. I know it's public relations/spin.

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." -E Benn

Oh and now Nunes has admitted he didn’t even read the underlying intel.

Wow, that is so surprising. I am very shocked and surprised. I did not see that coming at all.

You can't actually really blame him for that. The deal is that one Republican and one Democrat on the committee get to actually see all the underlying intel. (Also one staffer for each of them, and same on the Senate side---this is what they call the "Gang of Eight"). For whatever reason, the Republican they've authorized for that is Gowdry, not Nunez. So he's actually not allowed to see the intel.

He can't see the intel because he "recused" himself from the Russia investigation, turning it over to Gowdy because he helped to campaign for Trump. Which is why the memo is even bigger bullshit, and why I absolutely can blame him.

"VOTE SHEMOCRACY! You will only have to do it once!" -Loyalty Officer Aresen

Oh and now Nunes has admitted he didn’t even read the underlying intel.

Wow, that is so surprising. I am very shocked and surprised. I did not see that coming at all.

You can't actually really blame him for that. The deal is that one Republican and one Democrat on the committee get to actually see all the underlying intel. (Also one staffer for each of them, and same on the Senate side---this is what they call the "Gang of Eight"). For whatever reason, the Republican they've authorized for that is Gowdry, not Nunez. So he's actually not allowed to see the intel.

He can't see the intel because he "recused" himself from the Russia investigation, turning it over to Gowdy because he helped to campaign for Trump. Which is why the memo is even bigger bullshit, and why I absolutely can blame him.

Sorry, I was unclear.

The memo is utter bullshit, and you can 100% blame him for that.

You can maybe blame him for trying to push the memo when he hadn't read the underlying intelligence, purely because he hadn't read the underlying intelligence. But presumably someone has read the intelligence (apparently it's Kash Patel), and it's perfectly reasonable to say "whoah, this intelligence summary looks really bad, we need to tell people".

What you can't blame him for is the fact that he hasn't read the intelligence. Like, if you're asking "why the fuck has this guy not done his job and read the intel?" then there's a very good reason for that.

"ike Wile E. Coyote salivating over a "4000 Ways To Prepare Roadrunner" cookbook without watching his surroundings, the Road Runner of Societal Inertia snuck up on them both and beepbeeped them off the mesa."
--Shem

I thought that was quite useful. I have a friend who is relatively close to warrants in non FISA environments who was pretty insistent this was something that'd get a prosecutor actually arrested. Now, I suspect that view was formed by taking Nunez at face value, (i.e. there was no disclosure at all of political nature of a piece of data). He was hoping for a full review of FISA stuff precisely because it looks like abuse of the process for explicitly political outcomes. I just don't think that's a plausible scenario.

Mueller alleged that Russian operatives “communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign”, but the indictment did not address the question of whether anyone else in Trump’s team had knowingly colluded.

"VOTE SHEMOCRACY! You will only have to do it once!" -Loyalty Officer Aresen

Mueller alleged that Russian operatives “communicated with unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign”, but the indictment did not address the question of whether anyone else in Trump’s team had knowingly colluded.

I'm waiting for the Trump tweet of "See, there's no collusion! We're just dupes!"

"Sharks do not go around challenging people to games of chance like dojo breakers."

"ike Wile E. Coyote salivating over a "4000 Ways To Prepare Roadrunner" cookbook without watching his surroundings, the Road Runner of Societal Inertia snuck up on them both and beepbeeped them off the mesa."
--Shem

"ike Wile E. Coyote salivating over a "4000 Ways To Prepare Roadrunner" cookbook without watching his surroundings, the Road Runner of Societal Inertia snuck up on them both and beepbeeped them off the mesa."
--Shem

So, let's assume the most charitable possible scenario: The people at the top of the Trump camp were dupes, played by the Russians. Their worst crimes involve shady real estate deals, not knowing collusion with a foreign intelligence service. Yes, Russia managed to insert guys like Manafort into Trump's circle, but the Don and his sons were innocent dupes. We're still left with a President who is both so incompetent and so crooked (vis-a-vis his willingness to do business with Russian gangsters) that the Russian government was able to insert all sorts of people around him, and manipulate his campaign.

How does Congress not impeach? A man that compromised can't run the government, unless he essentially agrees to be ceremonial head of state while Mike Pence is effectively PM.

"ike Wile E. Coyote salivating over a "4000 Ways To Prepare Roadrunner" cookbook without watching his surroundings, the Road Runner of Societal Inertia snuck up on them both and beepbeeped them off the mesa."
--Shem

How does Congress not impeach? A man that compromised can't run the government, unless he essentially agrees to be ceremonial head of state while Mike Pence is effectively PM.

Typical liberal propaganda topped by an unhealthy dollop of wishful thinking. The whole system is corrupt and there's no reason to think the Democrats are any better than the Republicans. Besides, Hillary would've been just as bad, if not worse. Give your incoherent Democrat-love a rest. The only reason HIllary hasn't already been arrested and charged with treason over Benghazi and the Clinton Foundation uranium payoffs is the corruption of the ....... [ad infinitum]

"Myself, despite what they say about libertarians, I think we're actually allowed to pursue options beyond futility or sucking the dicks of the powerful." -- Eric the .5b

Plus "We knew Trump wasn't perfect, but he's pushing our agenda, and that's more important than things like personal character or being blackmailable or being public with his thoughts about women and minorities (when we're a lot more careful to be quiet about them)."

"Sharks do not go around challenging people to games of chance like dojo breakers."

I wonder if that's part of why Trump was so grumpy on Twitter this weekend.

"ike Wile E. Coyote salivating over a "4000 Ways To Prepare Roadrunner" cookbook without watching his surroundings, the Road Runner of Societal Inertia snuck up on them both and beepbeeped them off the mesa."
--Shem